


Hark! The Harold Angels Sing ("Someone Pass the Eggnog, Please")

by interlude



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Christmas, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-10
Updated: 2013-12-10
Packaged: 2018-01-04 05:35:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,869
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1077132
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/interlude/pseuds/interlude
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Castiel spends a very human Christmas with his very angelic family.</p>
<p>(Set and written before season 9)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hark! The Harold Angels Sing ("Someone Pass the Eggnog, Please")

**Author's Note:**

> as mentioned, this was written and posted on Tumblr before season 9 aired. Since we're nearing Christmas, I decided to bring it back by posting it here

**_i. family_ **

It is sudden and unexpected - as are most things involving Gabriel.

One moment Castiel is with the Winchesters, hanging over Sam’s shoulder to read the newspaper in his hands - part of being a hunter, he had learned, is having the ability to scan through the news and separate stories into normal, weird, and possibly-supernaturally-weird. He was halfway through an obituary of a rather normal business man from Ohio when he felt himself dragged through space - one moment in the Winchester’s current motel room and the next in a room he didn’t recognize.  
Steeling himself for a fight, Castiel takes in the small room - the light yellow walls, the simple decorations, the fireplace, and, most importantly, the group of angels standing about: Gabriel at the center with a grin, Anna hovering beside him, Balthazar lounging in an armchair off to the side.

None of them seem ready to fight. More confusing, though, none of them appear to be dead. Castiel blinks in surprise. “You are-“

"Dead?" Gabriel finishes. Anna’s face pinches at the reminder; Balthazar merely heaves a sigh, examining his nails. "Well good ol’ Dad brought you back, right? Why not us?"

"And just in time for the holidays; how thoughtful," Balthazar murmurs.

If anything, this knowledge worries Castiel more; he’s unsure how his siblings are going to react to him. The fact that one of them summoned him here is troubling. Perhaps Castiel could manage a three on one fight with the right conditions, but two archangels stand before him and something weighs down his wings and holds him in place - likely until they’ve managed to say what they want. Gabriel died helping the Winchesters and more often than not these days Castiel is held responsible by the other angels for Dean’s choices; as for Anna, Castiel can still remember the look on her face as he lured her into a trap and left her to the Host; Balthazar is almost too painful to think of. The reminder leaves a bitter taste in his mouth: guilt, he thinks.

He’s become very good at holding onto guilt.

Gabriel catches his eye. “Relax, Castiel. Forgive and forget, yeah? With Michael and Luci locked up and the main event called off, we might as well stop fighting.”

"Why have you brought me here?" Castiel can only come up with one possible reason. It relieves him almost as much as it worries him - it’s probably bad that he thinks that way.

"Christmas is a time for family," Anna says. "I celebrated it for twenty-three years with my human parents. Maybe if angels started acting like an actual family we wouldn’t fight so much."

Balthazar scoffs. “Or we’d fight more.”

Anna glares at him. “Either way, it might be nice to try to have a real Christmas. Like family. Put everything else behind us.” She looks at Castiel then, a heavy weight in her stare - a message that Castiel’s not sure he wants to receive. Forgiveness isn’t for him.

It’s an appealing thought, though. He’s been yearning to try more and more common human experiences; he had imagined he’d spend Christmas with Sam and Dean, though he supposes they aren’t very into “normal” Christmases, and perhaps attempting to become closer to the few of his brothers and sisters he has helped or considered close in the past might not be a bad idea.

Perhaps it won’t change anything.

But the world is still standing, Purgatory is behind him, and Castiel welcomes an opportunity to think of something simple.

"Alright."

 

 

_**ii. tree** _

"It’s littering pine needles everywhere," Balthazar notes.

"It’s tradition," Anna insists.

It’s rather unusual, in Castiel’s opinion. He has seen the image of Christmas trees in the past few weeks - had even had Dean explain the concept. But while he recognizes the tradition, he can’t possibly understand the reason. What does a tree have to do with Christ Mass?

A box is placed in his hands; it’s full of shiny red and gold glass bulbs. “Ornaments,” Anna explains. “You hang them on the branches.”

Gabriel struggles with a bundle of lights, cursing in multiple languages as he attempts to unknot them. They - or Anna, rather - had decided earlier that they should attempt to do things as human as possible - that meant no grace, no trickster magic, and no snapping your fingers to fix things. Castiel was the only one who had readily agreed.

Balthazar was still reclining in the armchair, opting to watch rather than help. It took time, but Gabriel was able to string the lights with Anna’s help and then turned to the tinsel. Castiel took time hanging the ornaments, placing each one with careful consideration.

Once it’s decorated - ridiculous angel at the top that all of them find ridiculous - Castiel surveys their work and feels something like accomplishment and pride.

 

 

_**iii. snow** _

The world is hidden in perfect white. Castiel hesitates to step out into it, afraid to let his footprints destroy the perfection that will only exist for a little while longer. It’s almost like the world is new again - pure and unblemished - and Castiel doesn’t want to be the one to ruin it again. (He doubts he would have hesitated a few years ago, when he first stepped down onto earth in the body of Jimmy Novak; but many things have happened since then and Castiel is not who he was.)

In the end Gabriel drags him out into the show. They play like children, building snowmen with Anna’s instructions, dodging snowballs when Gabriel and Balthazar begin a war.

It’s a new experience. Not just the snow, but the simplicity. Angels are never children.

When they return to the house, Castiel pauses at the door, looking back at the mess they’ve made of the snow.

It’s no longer a perfect covering of white, but Castiel can see their lopsided snowman from where he stands, remembers the sting of snow on his cheek as Gabriel caught him with a snowball, Anna’s laugh as she stuck snow down Balthazar’s back.

He doesn’t feel the loss for the perfection as he thought he might.

 

 

_**iv. fires and hot chocolate** _

After snow, Anna says, one must have a fire and hot chocolate.

Castiel has had little experience with fires beyond bone burning and holy fire. It crackles in the fireplace in a way that is more comforting than menacing, the light casting glows over the angels as they sit around it silently. Castiel doesn’t feel the cold on his vessel and doesn’t feel the heat of the fire either - still, there is the suggestion of warmth that settles over him pleasantly.

He doesn’t much care for the hot chocolate, passing his mug off to Gabriel who takes it greedily, but he decides he quite likes the fire.

 

 

_**v. eggnog** _

"You’re what?" Dean’s voice crackles over the phone.

Castiel explains again, how the tinsel Gabriel put on the tree stuck to his trench coat and stubbornly clung on, how Anna helped him pack snowballs without a trace of anger, and how Balthazar sometimes catches his eye and looks at him in a way that sometimes says can you believe how ridiculous these human traditions are? but sometimes says I’ve forgiven you, you know.

Dean’s quiet on the other end for a moment. Finally he says, “Just be back after Christmas, alright?” and “Remember to try eggnog. It’s a tradition.”

 

 

_**vi. cookies & candy canes** _

Anna can’t bake. She never could get the hang of it in her human life, surviving on take out and microwave pizza.

Gabriel begins to resent the no magic rule (more than he had) when the cookies come out of the oven charred and far too salty. Anna looks so embarrassed at her failure that she temporarily allows them to ignore that rule; immediately the kitchen is full of cookies and Christmas desserts of all kinds and Gabriel looks absolutely giddy.

Castiel picks up a strange red and white striped candy and stares at it in confusion - it’s shaped like a hook, and he can think of no logical reason why; it certainly can’t make it easier to eat. “It’s candy cane,” Anna explains, nibbling on a cookie.

"And they’re not nearly sweet enough; try something else," Gabriel says; Castiel declines the cookies and cakes the archangel suggests and carefully unwraps the candy cane. ("If you were human you’d have died from your diet years ago," Anna chastises in the background.)

"Don’t bite, just suck," Balthazar advises, then grins in that way that Castiel knows means he’s missed some sort of joke.

He does as instructed, slowly considering the taste before deciding that it can be added to the list of foodstuff that he likes. (It is a growing list, as is the one full of dislikes. Castiel enjoys trying new things and making new choices, deciding whether the taste is pleasing to him or not. It’s not important in the grand scheme of things - to the human body, nourishment is nourishment, and Castiel’s body doesn’t need it at all - but it’s another form of free will and Castiel will gladly take it.)

There is a whole bowl of candy canes on the edge of the counter that the other three ignore. Castiel takes all of them, tucking them into his trench coat pockets for later.

 

 

_**vii. Christmas cards** _

"Is that a Christmas card? Who sent it?"

"Cas."

It’s simple - nothing but a picture: Balthazar grinning cockily with hands in his pockets, Anna fuming with real antlers sprouting from her head, Gabriel laughing beside her - no doubt to blame for Anna, and Castiel just as awkward and stiff as he had been in the only other picture he’d ever taken.

But there’s a slight curve to his lips, and the back of the card reads “Merry Christmas Dean and Sam, from Castiel” in red pen, and Dean finds himself smiling as he sets in on the dashboard of the Impala.

viii. Christmas carols

Castiel doesn’t sing. Balthazar only knows inappropriate versions of the lyrics. Gabriel corrects the lyrics about Mary and adds in his own anecdotes. Anna refuses to deal with any of their voices.

Instead they play a Christmas CD until the various repetitions of “angels sing” becomes too much for any of them and they decide to turn it back off again.

 

 

_**ix. presents** _

A list of the things Castiel receives for his first Christmas:

_1\. a book by one of Sam’s favorite authors that he thinks he might like_   
_2\. a pack of cigarettes, three bottles of scotch, a box of condoms, an offer to head to the nearest bar from Balthazar_   
_3\. a pair of ridiculous white, feathery wings sprouting from his back that flutter and flag without his say-so and get in his way constantly, accompanied by a bright halo hovering above his head that refuses to be removed from Gabriel (likely inspired by all of the ridiculous angel images this time of year)_   
_4\. an AC/DC tape from Dean to “introduce him to good music, shut up, Sammy, your taste in music sucks”_

_(5. and from Dean later in private: a hug and a smile, a “Merry Christmas, Cas,” and a promise to celebrate Christmas the Winchester way next year)_


End file.
